


Monsters in the Closet

by ImpyTricky (rychuu)



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-08 21:51:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20842583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rychuu/pseuds/ImpyTricky
Summary: Everyone has monsters in their closet. After punching him in the cafeteria, Kaito decides on a whim to seek out and confront Kokichi about his behavior. He isn’t ready to see what kind of monster Kokichi is hiding.





	Monsters in the Closet

Maybe it was out of guilt. Maybe it was out of curiosity. Maybe it was the jarring, sudden shift in Kokichi’s behavior that made his gut pool with unease.

Kaito wouldn’t have been able to explain his determination to seek Kokichi out a few hours after his outburst.

Finding Kokichi wasn’t actually all that difficult, much to his surprise. Kokichi had locked himself in his dormitory room. Which, if that wasn’t alarming enough, Kaito had been told by Shuichi that he had went to check up on him, only to not get an answer. The only reason he knew Kokichi was even in his room to begin with, was the fact that Monokuma told him that he was “moping around” and that Shuichi shouldn’t waste his time.

Something was very, very wrong. Kaito could feel it.

Soon after Shuichi took his leave, Kaito made a bee line to Kokichi’s room, and once there, he didn’t even hesitate before loudly knocking on the door.

“Kokichi! I know you’re in there. Open up, we need to talk.”

There wasn’t an answer for several seconds. However, when Kaito was about to knock on the door again, he heard the door unlock. Kokichi opened the door, only enough to peek at him. Kaito could see that his punch made a mark in the form of a bruise, but more so, he saw a dead, and tired gaze.

“What do _ you _ want?” Kokichi’s tone was harsh, though Kaito couldn’t blame him for it. “I’m not in the mood to accept apologies.”

“Well, good, ‘cause that’s not why I’m here,” Kaito replied. Though, nerves and guilt struck him, and he rubbed the back of his head. “Well. I mean, I _ am _ sorry, but that’s not what we need to talk about.”

Kokichi only scowled. Though, Kaito saw a hint of curiosity glimmer in Kokichi’s eyes. “What, then? I’m busy.”

“Busy? Sure doesn’t look like it.” Kaito sighed. “Look, just… let me in, it’s something I don’t think either of us want anyone else listening in on.”

This earned Kaito a scoff. “What, gonna confess your undying love for me? You’re right, I wouldn’t want _ anyone _ to hear something so disgusting.”

“Wha—What the _ hell, _dude?!” The thought did make Kaito’s face burn a bit and ball his fists, but he bit his tongue. Kokichi was, surely, trying to rile him up to push him out, but his gut told him that leaving wasn’t an option. Something in the back of his mind told him that if he left Kokichi to his own devices, that disaster would strike.

He couldn’t let Kokichi have his way.

“Okay, fine, you wanna be a pain in the ass about it?” Kaito started with a low growl. “It’s about your little incident this morning. What the hell’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing’s ‘gotten into me,’ dumb ass,” Kokichi spat. “Just my nature, this killing game’s only fun if it continues!”

“We both know that’s bullshit.”

“Ooooh? And how do you _ know _ it’s bullshit, hmm?” Kokichi’s voice was dripping with sarcasm, and something about it made Kaito’s blood boil. “Just got one of your gut feelings again? You’re lucky you’re still _ alive, _ you know. Hey, maybe I’ll kill you! Yup, absolutely. I think you’d be a great victim. That oughta be entertaining! ‘Tragic Hero dies to Evil Supreme Leader!’ Man, what a headline...”

Kaito gritted his teeth, just barely able to resist holding himself back from shoving the door open only to punch Kokichi right in his face again.

If he wasn’t going to get a clear response from Kokichi, he had to think. Something had changed, from the day before to that morning. What changed? What could have possibly made Kokichi start acting so strangely?

There was really only one thing Kaito could think of—and a part of him wished he had realized it sooner.

“You saw something, didn’t you?”

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Yet even just that took Kokichi off guard, and Kaito saw a moment of weakness in his normally unbreaking mask. A slight widen of his eyes, lips parting ever so slightly.

If that wasn’t a dead give away, Kaito didn’t know what was.

“You saw something,” Kaito affirmed. “And it’s got you acting out. The only thing I can think of is the key card Monokuma gave us. The one you stole. You found what it was for, didn’t you?”

The silence was telling, and it was telling a _ lot. _ Kokichi normally had a good poker face, a strong mask that never shook, but now, Kokichi’s expression darkened and he looked pale. He couldn’t even use his quick wit to make any kind of retort.

That meant whatever Kokichi had seen, whatever he was hiding… it had to be something awful. So god awful that not even the liar could hide the way it left him broken.

The feeling in Kaito’s gut only amplified. He knew, he was on the right track.

Kaito’s suspicions were only confirmed when Kokichi tried to slam the door shut.

Kokichi was quick, but not quick enough. With a surprised shout, Kaito stopped the door from slamming shut with his arm, and pushed against Kokichi. For as small as he was, Kokichi could muster up quite a bit of strength—but it was quickly overpower by Kaito.

“Oh no you _ don’t!” _ Kaito shouted, shoving the door back open. Maybe he used a little too much force, since it managed to make Kokichi stumble and fall over with a loud yelp. That didn’t matter. Without Kokichi there to keep him out, Kaito quickly stepped into the room, and shut the door behind him.“You saw something! You saw the _ motive! _ If you think I’m gonna leave you to your own devices before you tell me what you saw, you’re _ really _ out of your damn mind.”

“Gh… You _ prick,” _ Kokichi growled. “I didn’t see anything. Now get the hell out of my room!”

Lies. Kaito wasn’t about to fall for them. “Not happening until you tell me what you saw.”

Kokichi balled his fists and gritted his teeth. “I didn’t _ see _ anything. Didn’t you hear me?”

“All I heard was more bullshit.” Kaito crossed his arms and glared at Kokichi, leaning his back against the door to effectively trap him. “Now, you gonna cut the crap and tell me the truth?”

“Fuck off.”

“Not until you answer my damn question.”

Persistence. Kaito needed to stay determined and persistent, and not let Kokichi get him distracted. Though with how weak Kokichi’s mask had been, something told Kaito that he wouldn’t need much more.

After a few moments, Kokichi bowed his head, the shadow of his bangs hiding his eyes. “It’s not like you’d believe a liar like me, anyway.”

“Well...” Kokichi did have a point. Kaito normally never believed him for a second, but he was demanding the truth out of him anyway. If he were in Kokichi’s shoes, he would be pretty frustrated with the dilemma. “… I promise to believe you. Just don’t mess around, and I’ll believe you when you tell me what you saw.”

“Ooooh, that’s probably the worst lie I ever heard.” Kokichi’s tone slipped back into sarcasm, and he rolled his eyes before looking up at Kaito. “What if I started spewing nonsense about anything I want? How would you know the difference?”

Kaito hesitated to answer. Really, there wasn’t much he could do to determine what was a lie verses what wasn’t. He only had his gut feeling… but with how Kokichi had been acting… “I think I can manage. Just, try to be as honest as you can. Tell me what happened. Tell me what’s _ wrong. _ What did you see?”

Kokichi’s gaze fell, and with it, so did the life in his eyes. He really did look tired and dead. Kaito felt like he was so close to getting the truth out of him, so close…

When Kokichi didn’t immediately respond, Kaito frowned. “Please, Kokichi. I’m trying, but I can’t meet you half way if you don’t try, too. Even if it’s bad, you can’t just… keep it to yourself. It’s got you all messed up.”

Kokichi still didn’t answer. Instead, he pulled his knees to his chest, and wrapped his arms around his legs. Kaito then noticed how badly Kokichi had started shaking.

Stepping away from the door, Kaito took slow steps towards Kokichi, and knelt down beside him. “C’mon, Kokichi. If it’s that bad… I don’t want you to be alone in dealing with it. Come on, man. I need you to tell me. Please.”

He didn’t know what it was that was the final straw, but something in his final words broke through to Kokichi. He curled in on himself as much as he could, and his shaking only got worse.

There were tears gathering in his eyes.

“… You know the—the tunnels.” Kokichi’s voice had gotten to be so quiet, that Kaito was glad he decided to move closer to him. “You remember the Death Road of Despair tunnels, right…?”

“Yeah…?”

There was more silence. Kaito wanted to press Kokichi for answers, but this was a delicate balance that needed patience.

Eventually, Kokichi drew in a shuddered breath, and muttered; “You see that hammer, over there?”

Kokichi pointed into the general direction of the so-called hammer, and Kaito’s eyes followed until they settled on it. It looked.. gaudy, sort of out of place even in the mess that was Kokichi’s room. Though, the emblem on it... “Yeah? Looks like something Miu made.”

“Well, you’re right. She made it for me. It’s called an electrohammer.” Kokichi paused, and drew in another deep breath. “I used it. To get through the tunnels. It disables electronic traps and other electronic stuff.”

The revelation left Kaito astounded, and he almost expressed as such, but he closed his mouth as soon as it opened. There was an end to the tunnels, something that he might have considered to be a good thing. However, with how Kokichi was speaking…

“I know what you’re thinking,” Kokichi said, catching Kaito off guard. “You’re thinking, ‘well, why’s that a bad thing? That’s how we get outside, isn’t it?’ And, well. You’d be right. There’s a door right at the end. A big, round door that the card key can open.”

Dread settled in Kaito’s stomach, and he remained silent. This couldn’t end well. Kaito didn’t know what Kokichi was getting at, but he could tell—it wasn’t going to end well.

“I opened the door,” Kokichi whispered. His whole body was shaking, so viciously and violently, that Kaito could barely believe he was talking to Kokichi at all. “I opened it… and outside...”

Kokichi’s voice trailed off, and he gritted his teeth. A strangled whine escaped from him.

When Kaito was sure Kokichi wasn’t about to continue without prompting, he swallowed. With his voice low and unsure, he gently put a hand on Kokichi’s shoulder and asked; “What was outside?”

The moments of silence after his question filled him with even more dread. He felt Kokichi tense, saw him hug his knees as close to his chest as he possible could, and dreaded the answer he was about to give.

And then, he finally gave his answer.

“… _ Nothing.” _

Kaito blinked. He furrowed his brows with confusion, and his lips parted. He didn’t know what to say, being so bewildered and confused that his mind was drawing a blank.

Nothing? There was… nothing?

Kokichi must have seen the confusion written all over Kaito’s expression, because with another strangled whine, he clarified; “I mean… there’s nothing outside. No humans, no plants, no animals… not even breathable air. It was… it was all red, the sky, the ground, everything. A-and, and there were buildings, like… city buildings, crumbling and falling apart—”

“Whoa, whoa, hey, slow down for a sec,” Kaito interrupted, but Kokichi didn’t seem to have heard him.

“—Th-they’re all _ dead, _ every last human being on earth,” Kokichi wheezed, eyes widened and full of fear and despair. “We’re all that’s left of the human race, and we’ve just been killing each other for no reason—”

“K-Kokichi—”

“—Everyone who died, everyone we lost so far, they all died for _ nothing! _ Everyone in here, we’ve all suffered for nothing, there’s _ nothing left _ and we—” Kokichi moved his shaking hands, to look at them. Except while his eyes might have been staring, Kaito could tell that he wasn’t seeing what was right in front of him. “—Maybe we should all just _ die, _ we should have all just _ died _ with our families and loved ones, everyone should die before they find out and suffer—”

“_Kokichi!” _

Kaito had grabbed Kokichi’s other shoulder and shouted, shaking him once to make him snap out of it. Kokichi had gasped from the sudden jerk of his shoulders and the shout, and he stared at Kaito with wide eyes. Tears were streaming down his face, one by one.

There were no lies in that expression. The more Kaito realized what Kokichi had said, and how true it was, the worse his head and heart started to pound.

If he was going to believe Kokichi, then he had to believe that they were the only human beings left in the whole wide world.

Kaito’s head started spinning. There was nothing outside.

There was nothing outside.

_ Nothing. _

The word hit him like a ton of bricks, and all kinds of grief exploded in his chest. His grandparents, all of his friends, his hopes and dreams… all of it was gone. That was what Kokichi meant by “nothing.”

There was literally nothing. There was no reason to live. No reason to kill and escape from this horrible hell they all had been thrown into.

“Are… you serious?” He had promised Kokichi that he would believe him, but Kaito regretted making that promise. He so badly wanted it to be a lie. He wanted to believe that Kokichi was just lying to him.

Much to his dismay, Kokichi silently nodded.

Whatever grip Kaito had on Kokichi’s shoulders was lost, and Kaito couldn’t even look him in the eye. “You’ve... you’ve got to be _ kidding _ me...”

They fell silent, the both of them. A cold, deadly, oppressive silence that Kaito swore was about to strangle him. A part of him, deep down, didn’t know whether or not that was a good thing.

Finally, Kokichi broke him out of his thoughts as he spoke again; “They can’t know about this.”

Blinking, Kaito could only just about shake his head to get rid of the fog that threatened to cloud over his mind, and looked up at Kokichi again. “Why? They—we can’t just _ not _ tell them! They have to know!”

“And you want to make them feel like _ this?!” _ Kokichi cried out, and a single sob broke through. “Like they should just die?! Do you _ want _ them to suffer?!”

“Of course not!” Kaito felt his own eyes stinging with tears. “We, we just—we can’t keep this from them!”

The suffocating silence returned, and neither one of them could say anything. Kaito’s mind was racing, trying to think of something to say yet nothing would stick around long enough for him to do so. Every thought felt like a needle was being stabbed into his chest.

Suddenly, a realization hit him. Kokichi admitted to wanting to die, wishing he was dead. It was a feeling he could almost understand in the heavy grief that plagued is own heart.

Almost.

Slowly, without a word, Kaito wrapped his arms around Kokichi in a tight, protective, _ desperate _ hug.

Maybe any other time, Kokichi would have protested or said some kind of snarky remark. Except this wasn’t the Kokichi from the day before, smiling and up to some form of relatively harmless mischief. This person in his arms was a boy, a boy who had discovered a horrible truth that he could barely carry on his own. A boy who’s mind must have been shattered. Someone that Kaito almost left to carry such a heavy burden alone. Most of all, even if Kaito felt like he could hate Kokichi’s guts more often than not, he was one of the few precious people still left alive in a world that could only be called a living hell.

And with how Kokichi clung just as desperately to his shirt as Kaito did to him, Kaito could guess that Kokichi felt the same.


End file.
